Humanizing Your Brand to Truly Connect with Customers

By Leanne GilardiMay 18, 2015

TOPICSSocial Media

It’s a tall order, and one that all businesses and marketers would do just about anything to fill. It doesn’t matter whether you run a Fortune 500 company or a small ecommerce shop that you run from home. Humanizing your brand is essential if you want to survive in a competitive marketplace.

Human Branding through Social Media

Most businesses won’t flourish without a social media presence, but there’s something that’s even more important than being socially savvy: keeping it real.

Before you try to humanize your brand, you have to understand its mission and core principles. From there, you can build a persona and create messaging that allows it to speak for itself; that’s the foundation of any successful social media plan.

Getting to Know Your Own Brand

Ask yourself:

How long have we been in business?

Why do we sell what we sell?

Who is buying our products?

Where are they (geographically and in terms of social platforms)?

What makes us different?

Conducting a simple SWOT analysis – one that evaluates your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – lets you zero in on brand-specific opportunities that can give you an edge. At the same time, it draws your attention to your competitors and what they’re doing that threatens your market position.

What’s your angle? Hipster-chic? Classic? Modern? The answers will help you cultivate your brand’s voice and make connections with the right audience.

Mission: Brand Humanization

You know what your brand stands for and you’ve outlined your goals through your SWOT analysis.

Now it’s time to develop your company’s persona – its voice.

Are you going to be completely professional? Slightly hip? Humorous? Wacky? A blend of all of the above? It’s essential that you create consistency here that carries through all of your messaging.

Know Your Audience Before You Introduce Your Brand

Are the people you want to reach frequenting the most popular social media platforms, or are they elsewhere?

Do you know who your Facebook followers are? Is your brand healthy enough to be projecting on Twitter?

The last thing you want is an awkward brand introduction. You only get one chance to make a first impression on your clientele, so it needs to be memorable… in a positive way.

A Word on Using Twitter

Some people argue that certain brands don’t merit a Twitter feed, but I beg to differ. There is always a way to communicate your brand’s objectives, and you can do that on nearly any platform.

Unless you know, without any doubt, that your consumers don’t know the difference between a social media tweet and the bird chirping out their window, there’s a space for your content. Even then, there’s no harm in putting your brand out there.

Creating and Implementing Your Social Media Strategy

Whether you’ll be the only person posting updates on social media or you’ll have multiple users tasked with status changes, be sure your plan is clear. Be vigilant, as well. There have been far too many sordid stories of brands entering crisis mode due to a slip of the keyboard (or a disgruntled ex-employee who still has account access).

Keep track of what terms are trending for your products by using a site such as FollowerWonk.com.

Overall, it’s important to recognize what is now an integral part of business strategy: monitoring your brand on social media and ensure that it is approachable, yet polished.

At Exclusive Concepts, we’re always willing to help. Feel free to reach out to us directly to discuss how you could jump-start or optimize your social presence! Write to info@exclusiveconcepts.com.